Missed in the media’s concentration on Plame-gate and President Bush’s Supreme Court nomination, was this story from the Boston Globe evidencing yet again the distance between economic conservatives and the Republican governing elite.
CONCORD, N.H. –Republican Sen. Judd Gregg, New Hampshire’s fiscal conservative and chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, is calling for a tax
on excess oil profits to help fund a federal heating assistance program.Gregg says he is infuriated by recent profit reports from oil companies — he wants those profits to be taxed and the money used to fund heating aid for the poor and reduce the deficit.“Some might call this a novel approach for me, but I cannot sit back in good conscience while those in our society struggling to heat their homes are being left in the cold by oil companies,” Gregg said in a statement from Washington.
(….)
“It’s an inexcusable act by the oil companies to be profiting at the expense of the American people as we go through these extraordinarily high energy prices, $3 a gallon for gasoline, up to $2.50 for home heating oil,” Gregg said.
Yes, how horrible that they make a profit.
This is from a Republican. From a supposed conservative. From a supposed fiscal conservative at that. Unbelievable, totally unbelievable, especially when you consider the other politicians who are making similar calls for the “unfair” profits of ExxonMobil et al to be taxed even more than they already are.
First, there’s Senator Byron Dorgan; who is calling for a windfall profits tax to be imposed on the oil industry. Then, there’s Senator Charles Schumer, who has called for an excise tax on the oil industry that would be used to fund Katrina relief efforts.
“Oil companies who are making excessive profits because of Katrina, and perhaps Rita, should, at the very least, shoulder a share of the burden with taxpayers,” he said.
And if the tax doesn’t work, Schumer is apparently willing to consider other options:
Proposing the forced breakup of big oil companies would be a last resort, Schumer said, but it is a step he will take if prices don’t come down.
Such things are to be expected from Democrats, of course, but one would think that the Republican Party would actually be true to its professed principles and stand up for the market when its under attack. The truth, of course, is that the oil companies are an easy target right now just like the drug companies were a few years ago, and apparently Senator Gregg and other Republicans, feel like they need to get on the bandwagon rather than defending what they supposedly believe in.
Update 11/3/05: More evidence of Republican politicos abandoning their principles can be found here.
Linked with The Political Teen and Basil’s Blog and Outside The Beltway and Mudville Gazette
